Germany is the latest country weighing a ban on 5G telecommunications equipment from China-based vendors like Huawei and ZTE. The move comes on the heels of those vendors hosting a significant presence at the MWC Barcelona 2023 event in Spain.

A recent Reuters report noted the German government is considering a ban due to security concerns. The ban could include preventing that country’s telecommunications providers from both installing new 5G equipment as well as require them to replace equipment already installed in German networks.

That move would be similar to already passed efforts in the United States as well as other European countries like the United Kingdom.

The Chinese government in a statement protested the potential move, adding “Huawei accounts for nearly 60% of Germany's 5G network equipment.”

John Strand, CEO of Strand Consult, tied this number to the recent Munich Security Conference.

“You have the security conference in Munich, and all the equipment there is in that area, including the hotel where even the Vice President is staying, is on Huawei equipment,” Strand said in an interview with SDxCentral. “So basically what they say in Germany is … ‘welcome to the Munich Security Conference. We can't guarantee you any security, because all of your communications is through Chinese networks.”

Huawei Touts 5G Trust

The German news followed the recent MWC Barcelona 2023 event, where Huawei had a considerable presence. The vendor hosted a small city that took up half of one hall, and participated in countless event keynotes and held its own media briefings.

Paul Scanlan, CTO and president advisor for Huawei’s Carrier Business Group, headed one of those press briefings, where he attempted to counter the issue of trust that has become a rallying point for its fight against country bans.

“The best way to answer that question is you can ask the 741 customers – and not just trust Paul – and see whether they say they trust Huawei or they don’t trust Huawei,” Scanlan said.

He added that he had hosted meetings with a pair of customers that told him they were sorry they were pushed into this area, and that “we can’t buy your 5G. But we're here with eight of our executives because we want to maintain the relationship, because we know we can trust you, because you've helped us deliver results.”

Huawei’s adjustment to this challenge was highlighted by a “New Year Message for 2023” from Eric Xu, current rotating chairman of the China-based vendor. In it, Xu said the vendor was focused on a return to operational normalcy tied to digital investments.

“In 2022, we successfully pulled ourselves out of crisis mode,” Xu wrote in kicking off the message. “U.S. restrictions are now our new normal, and we’re back to business as usual. It’s been all hands on deck for the past year with every single member of the Huawei team working hard to navigate challenges and improve the quality of our operations.”

Despite those challenges, Huawei remained one of the world’s largest 5G equipment vendor last year.

Skeptical of Open RAN

While Huawei is dominant in the global 5G RAN market, it’s very leery of the open RAN space. Scanlan cited unnecessary integration challenges that made it overly complicated for operators to deploy and manage.

“It's complicated,” Scanlan said. “It's not as easy as saying we're going to decouple these things. The concepts are good. We tested Microsoft as an operating system many, many years ago on the base station just as we tested third-party chips to try and take that economy of scale from both of those. And it was a challenge. It's a challenge.”

He noted that while work is ongoing, after five years, the percentage of open RAN deployments is less than 1% of the global total.

“And just take it further downstream. Operators aren't going to give you New York City. They're going to ask you to do it somewhere out there. And you're going to have to go through and prove to four CIOs that the stuff can scale,” Scanlan said. “And 5G is already here. … So if you've got a lot of challenges, not that it’s not going to happen, but you have so many things stacked against you as an industry process that's considered normal, that makes it very challenging. But the initiative is there because everybody understands sort of the concept of what they want. But the promise is very difficult to live up to.”

Scanlan also cited information from Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) that found “multiple security risks” with open RAN specifications.

“Having all of these interfaces, that's going to make security better?” Scanlan added.